Oral history with Mr. Charles Cobb

              An Oral History with Mr. Charles Cobb
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of USM Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage It is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright and PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Mr. Charles Cobb was born on June 23, 1943, in Washington, D. C., the son of Charles, a socially- activist minster, and Martha Cobb. He was raised in Washington, D. C.; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Frankfort, Kentucky. Cobb's social activism was formed by what he terms " the family climate." He began participating in civil rights demonstrations in his last year of high school, where he joined fellow students picketing Woolworth's in support of southern students. In 1961, while at Howard University, he joined with members of the Nonviolent Action Group ( NAG), an affiliate of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC), and participated in sit- ins in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia. In the summer of 1962, Cobb was given money by the Congress of Racial Equality to attend a civil rights workshop in Houston, Texas. He traveled South by bus, and during a layover in Jackson, Mississippi, he contacted the local SNCC group. Lawrence Guyot convinced Cobb to stay in Mississippi, and within a week, he was a SNCC field secretary in Ruleville in Sunflower County in the Delta. There he and other SNCC volunteers engaged in voter registration. Since it was necessary for potential voters to interpret a section of the Mississippi State Constitution, they also became involved in adult education and in designing or adapting standardized methods to meet the requirements of teaching working poor and sharecroppers to read. In fall 1963 Cobb wrote the prospectus for what became the Freedom Schools, which many see as the greatest accomplishment of Freedom Summer ( 1964). The intent was to address the shortcomings of the Mississippi school system and to expose African- American students to new ideas, provide them with alternatives and new directions for action, and develop future leadership within the African- American community. Cobb is currently freelancing for the National G, for whom he is writing a long article on the African- American migration from Mississippi to Chicago. He is also researching his family's Mississippi roots for a future book.
Topics Discussed
Background, family history Early civil rights activities mus- coh. cobbc. doc Page 1 of 29